Google has partnered with Accel to seek out and fund India’s earliest-stage AI startups in a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Google AI Futures Fund, launched earlier this 12 months.
On Tuesday, Accel and Google introduced a partnership to collectively make investments as much as $2 million in every startup by means of Accel’s Atoms program, with each corporations contributing as much as $1 million. The 2026 cohort will deal with founders in India and the Indian diaspora constructing AI merchandise from day one.
“The thought course of is constructing AI merchandise for billions of Indians, in addition to supporting AI merchandise in-built India for world markets,” Prayank Swaroop, a accomplice at Accel, instructed TechCrunch.
India is an interesting market with the world’s second-largest web and smartphone base after China and its deep engineering expertise. Nonetheless, it’s additionally a rustic that lacks frontier mannequin growth and hasn’t produced many corporations pushing the technical frontier of AI, the place growth stays concentrated within the U.S. and China.
Exercise is beginning to shift, nevertheless, as main corporations together with OpenAI and Anthropic have not too long ago introduced places of work within the nation, and world buyers step up early-stage commitments. The guess is that a big, mobile-first inhabitants, increasing cloud infrastructure, and comparatively low software program prices might flip India right into a significant AI market — if the ecosystem can translate expertise and demand into unique analysis and merchandise.
Swaroop stated investments will likely be geared towards nearly any space: creativity, leisure, coding, and work. “The way forward for work right here is extra encompassing, which is actually SaaS, and all different purposes,” he instructed TechCrunch. “It might even be foundational fashions.”
Swaroop stated the corporations may also attempt to establish areas the place massive language fashions are prone to advance over the following 12-24 months and search for Indian startups constructing in these instructions.
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Alongside capital, founders will obtain as much as $350,000 in compute credit throughout Google Cloud, Gemini, and DeepMind, in addition to early entry to Gemini and DeepMind fashions, APIs, and experimental options. This system will embody assist from Google Labs and DeepMind analysis groups, co-development alternatives, month-to-month mentorship with Accel companions and Google technical leads, and immersion periods in London and the Bay Space, together with Google I/O. Founders may also get advertising and marketing assist by means of Accel and Google’s world channels, in addition to entry to the Atoms founder community and Google’s AI builder ecosystem, the businesses stated.
“India has an unbelievable historical past of innovation, and we firmly imagine that its founders are going to be taking part in a number one position within the subsequent technology of AI-led world know-how,” Jonathan Silber, co-founder and director of the Google AI Futures Fund, instructed TechCrunch. “That is the Futures Fund’s first such collaboration wherever on the earth, and we selected India for a cause. Google has been a dedicated accomplice within the nation’s journey to digital transformation, with multibillion-dollar investments through the years.”
The partnership follows Google’s current $15 billion plan to construct a 1-gigawatt knowledge heart and AI hub in India. The corporate additionally introduced a $10 billion digitization fund in 2020, which has backed corporations together with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Final month, Google partnered with Reliance to supply thousands and thousands of Jio customers free entry to AI Professional.
Google launched the AI Futures Fund in Might as a devoted automobile to put money into and collaborate with AI startups globally. It has backed corporations together with Replit and Harvey, and has additionally invested instantly in Indian startups resembling Toonsutra and STAN.
Silber instructed TechCrunch that Google would seem on the cap tables of startups funded by means of the partnership and could be “a fabric presence,” however declined to share how its fairness stakes would evaluate with Accel’s.
“That is our try to work with the market chief within the house who is aware of the nation extremely nicely, that may get us speaking to earlier-stage founders at an early informative stage, that may transfer the needle,” Silber stated.
Whereas utilizing Google merchandise is, maybe, a given for candidates to this program, each Silber and Swaroop instructed TechCrunch there could be no necessities for startups to solely use Gemini or another Google product.
“Typically, Google’s know-how is the very best. Different instances, you’ll see Anthropic or OpenAI. So, we’re not placing agency necessities that say you possibly can solely use Google’s fashions,” stated Silber. “What we’re hoping to do, although, is locate a few completely different distinctive integrations that we will do with these corporations that leverage Google AI know-how.”
Launched in 2021, Accel’s pre-seed and seed platform, Atoms, has backed greater than 40 corporations which have collectively raised over $300 million in follow-on funding. The agency expanded this system this 12 months to incorporate Indian-origin founders primarily based abroad.
The newest collaboration comes days after Accel’s partnership with Prosus to co-invest in Atoms X, backing early-stage Indian founders constructing large-scale options with the potential to serve the lots within the nation.
Silber instructed TechCrunch that Google just isn’t structuring the partnership as a pathway to future acquisitions, and even future cloud prospects.
“We’re not a gross sales crew, so we’re not particularly trying to enroll new cloud prospects. That’s not our aim,” he stated. “By way of KPIs, our goal is solely to see the following wave of innovation within the AI house popping out of India.”